Nonviolent conflict is a way for people to fight for rights, freedom, justice, self-determination, and accountable government, through the use of civil resistance - including tactics such as strikes, boycotts, protests, and civil disobedience. Learn more...

On Friday the 13th, former president Mohamed Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison after a charade of a trial that produced a guilty verdict on “terrorism” charges, implausible since he had won an international award in 2012 for his leadership in nonviolent resistance. The Maldives are now a metaphor for all civil societies that are hanging by a thread, in the face of shadowy forces that would take down by violence what nonviolent struggle has accomplished. Civil resistance remains the most effective weapon for democracy’s defenders. Nasheed’s followers are unified, disciplined, and have popular support.

“Troublemaker” is how we describe a person who does something within his rights that is forbidden in Syria. You can be a media troublemaker, or a political troublemaker; it might be no more than a sarcastic remark made in public, because even our linguistic audacity has limits, imposed on us over the decades. But Mazen Darwish speaks in a language whose dictionary contains words such as human rights, right to information, and freedom of opinion and expression. In every era there are those who refuse to hide behind a shield of silence.

I have been an activist in Intag's anti-mining struggle for two decades. The proposed mine threatens the whole region with environmental and social upheaval. In spite of the death threats, the economic hardships, the witnessing of so much injustice and apathy, the short-sightedness of politicians, and being vilified by the highest elected official of a nation, the struggle is worth it. I find the question of how I can keep opposing the mine baffling, because it is impossible for me to grasp that anyone who feels part of, and loves his community, would do anything else but defend it against such a clear and imminent threat. The alternative is to pack up and leave. And I'm not about to do that.

With global democracy declining for the ninth year in a row, we look at some of the opposition leaders around the world who are now in prison and even face death sentences. The list includes opposition heads from Venezuela, Ethiopia, Burundi, Kuwait, Malaysia, DRC, Tanzania, Rwanda, Sudan, Swaziland and the Maldives, where following the arrest of former president Mohamed Nasheed, the opposition launched a national civil disobedience campaign to free Nasheed, calling for citizens to take to the street in peaceful protest.

On Thursday, the Beijing offices of Yirenping, a public health and social justice NGO, were raided by police, who took computers and other materials and locked employees out of the building. Yirenping has felt increasing pressure as Xi Jinping’s administration has tightened the reins on civil society groups in the country. But the recent raid also appears to be tied to detention of five feminist activists, all of whom had ties to the organization. Some observers have said they believe the detention of these prominent activists will lead to a “feminist awakening” in China—and indeed, supporters from a broad swath of Chinese society have spoken out against their detention.

Job Opening: ICNC Assistant Director, Field Initiatives

The Assistant Director, Field Initiatives will work with ICNC's President to help develop and manage ICNC’s educational initiatives for activists, organizers, and others who are closely or directly involved in civil resistance campaigns and movements around the world.

WEBINAR - Re-thinking Civil Resistance: How to Challenge Power and Build a Democratic Society

The concept of civil resistance presumes the notion of a large-scale struggle as a means to initiate a sustained political change. But the typical actions by which civil resistance has been practiced in recent years, most notably in the Arab Spring, have been aimed at power at the top, an approach that ignores a key principle of nonviolent action-that power resides in the masses. Meaningful change requires a longer-term approach directed at changing the mind-sets of the masses of people and at changing institutions, not necessarily the officials in those institutions. In the end, it is a continued development of new understandings of power, wielded from the bottom up, developed democratically, practiced over time, understood by many, that will change an oppressive culture.

APPLY NOW - ICNC RESEARCH MONOGRAPH SERIES

The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) announces its second Research Monographs Awards series. The goal of the award is to advance research and study in the field of civil resistance. In particular the award is intended to support work that enhances the strategic practice of civil resistance, improves understanding of civil resistance by members of the international community, and develops robust conceptual frameworks for understanding the nature, dynamics, power and impact of civil resistance movements.

In 2015, up to two awards, each worth $5,000, will be offered to scholars, educators, or practitioners who have substantial knowledge of the literature of the field of civil resistance on an open, merit, and competitive basis to write monographs on under-researched or under-published topics relevant to the field of civil resistance studies. The authors will be expected to deliver their draft monographs within 6 months after the awards are announced and the work is commissioned (once the appropriate documents are signed by all parties).